The Stale New s Bi-w eekly Magazine Thursday, January 18, 1968 2 Michigan State News, East Lansing, Michigan C alendar of Events . 1 8 - J a n . 3 1 Thursday, January 18, 1968 3 Buildings we’ve got; but Sporty is art? By JIM YOUSLING Here they are, ladles and gentlemen: M SU's contributions to the fine arts. First we have "Sparty," the Spirit of MSU trapped inside a masterpiece reminiscent of our Auditorium WPA mural— a Cecil B. DeMlIle god modestly attired in baggy trousers, a cross between Rodin and Grant Wood. Next there Is a pleasant work which is ab­ stract enough to be arty, but not too abstract to offend anyone (as Chicago’s 5-story Picasso does). Once there were a pair of them, but during the demolition of the old band shell, the crew Inadvertently bashed the second one to smithereens. We are fortunate that this one W HERE AM I? An abstracted woman, was safely removed to Its present home, the exiled to the" Muele Building. M usic Building, before the construction, people could build Bessey Hall atop it. An Irreplace­ able treasure. Finally, we have an ultra-modern work (No Photo* by Bob Ivins squares, wel) which is gracefully perched upon a pile of cement blocks in front of the Cyclo­ tron Building. One suspects that It Is titled something appropriate like "M an’s Quest Fori Truth On a Pile of Cement” or ’’Cyclotron, A b stra c tio n N o . L ” And that's it. Outside of Kresge Art Center, these three statues are M SU's Idea of beauty. Our architecture runs from the banality of Morrill Hall to the sterility of Wells. Our stock of murals and paintings extend very little beyond those zodiac things on the Brody Group and die "authentic reproductions'* of Renoir and others which are spewed through the Union. Other points of Interest include the Levi R. Taft Rock (at the Haslett Entrance triangle) and the stuffed polar bear In the Natural Resources foyer. Somehow, many people have gotten the Im pres­ sion that we have a beautiful campus. We must owe this honor totally to our landscape artists, our estimated 55 million worth of trees (each with its very own labell), die Red Cedar Sewage System, our winding streets, and a hoard of ducks. All totalled up, they create a pretty W HAT AM I? A contemporary work, nice place In which to live. dumped on a m ass-producedpedestal. But bow much longer can we plop our m ass- produced skyscrapers among the natural beauty, expecting the slow-growing’ trees and Ivy to conceal their ugliness? MSU needs to utilize not only Its forestry experts, but its painters and sculptors as well, to say nothing of the need for some architects who are poetic as well as functional. Even if It does cost more. Although Kresge has some quality work, only British art the art majors ever see it. Certainly MSU Is a tightly-budgeted Institute of learning: but just as certainly It can justify supporting its own artists by buying their work and spreading i n D e t r o i t It around die campus among die gardens, trees, and so-called buildings. Sparty deserves a "Romantic Art In Britain: Paintings and better embodyment, statues needn't be clumsily Drawings, 1760-1860,” the biggest art exhibition destroyed, and art deserves a little more respect than a pedestal of cement blocks. It might cheer WHO AM I? The spirit of MSU, of the new year, is now in progress at die Detroit unaffected by the weather or progress. Institute of Arts. The show, which opened Jan. up all up a little. 9, w ill extend through Feb. 18. The exhibition consists of 236 works by British artists of the Romantic Era. Although the show includes the works of masters such as Gains­ borough, Reynolds, Constable, Turner and Blake, A B O U T M I K E It focuses attention on artists not previously . Why Th* shown In the U.S. Reflecting the importance of its scholarly prem ­ ise— the re-evaluation of B ritish artists In relation to the modern art explosions of the 19th U N ISP H E R E ® century— the exhibition Is under the official Is The Official patronage of Queen Elizabeth II and President Microphone Of Joh n so n . Herman's Hermits According to W illis F. Woods, director of the O n T o u r Detroit Institute of Arts, and Dr. Evans H. Turner, director of the Philadelphia Museum of ,krt, Herman knows his micro­ the collection constitutes "the most Important and phone is his link with his audience. He wants you to original exhibition of British art ever shown hear his voice and the lyr­ here or abroad.” ics, naturally, without Aside from contributions from England’s great- howling feedback, without est art galleries, he unprecedented display in­ annoying close-up breath cludes loans from the Royal Collection and private "pop”, without audience sounds. Pretty tough test owners such as the Duke of Northumberland. for a microphone . rou­ The display, which has taken three years to tine for the incomparable prepare, will re-open In Philadelphia on March Shure Unisphere. Just ask 14. During the Detroit showing there will he a the better groups. general adm ission charge of $1. Students w ill be Shun Brothers, Inc. admitted for 25 cents. For those especially 222 Hartley Ave. Interested, the Institute will provide special Evanston, III. 60204 t^urs and feature related lectures and films. © 1967 Shure Brothers. Inc 4 Michigan State News, East Lansing, Michigan Vietnam before the West By LAW RENCE BATTISTINI Copyright 1968 Lawrence H. Battîstlnî, professor of social science at Vietnam is pert of an area in Southeast As la w h ic h qp to and shortly after World War II MSU was educated at Brown University arqj Trinity College. #as commonly known In the West as French Indo­ He received his Ph.D. at Yale. Specializing W U.S. foreign china. The region today la made 19 flt V ie tn a m . relations, with an em phasis on U.S.—Aslan affairs, he Is the and Laos. About 70 per cent of the author of six books In this area. His experience includes population of the Indochina area consists of four years as professor of history at Sophia University Vietnamese, who are concentrated In preeent- In Tokyo; extensive travel in Europe and Asia; and service day Vietnam, which when w der French co n tro l as an intelligence officer during W orld W ar II. of the three administrative regions of In an effort to stimulate informed debate on U.S. involve­ Cochin-China, Annam and Tonkin. Culturally t.u«t Vietnamese are linked to the Chinese, where- ment in Southeast Asia, Collage has asked Professor Battls- as the *>«*■<««« and Laotians are closer cul­ tlni to w rite a se rie s of five articles on the history of turally to die Thais, the Burm ese and die Indians. Vietnam and Western power there, drawing from the manu­ Vietnam Is today a country artificially divided script of his new book. In the coming weeks, these articles at approximately the seventeenth paralleL This will cover the French conquest and loss of Vietnam, U.S. partition took place at Geneva In 1954. Communist displacement of France, U.S. escalation of the war, and North Vietnam has an area of some 62,000 square finally a concluding evaluation of the Vietnam issue. miles and a population estimated In 1962 at 16,200,000. South Vietnam, as demarcated by the Geneva Agreements/ Is 65,000 square miles, and has s slightly sm aller population, estimated at 15,317.000 In 1963. The total area of all remaining In southern China were conquered by piration of the Annamese to be free of foreigi Vietnam, then. Is 127,000 square miles, making the powerful Ch’ln emperor 01 China. Shlh Huang domination, no matter Its benefits. it considerably larger than Italy, and Its total Ti, about 221 B.C. Within three years this Taking advantage of the anarchy prevailing lr population, estimated at 31,517,000 in 1963, Is about expansionist emperor brought under his control China after the fall of the once resplendent the same as Spain. the little Annamese kingdom which then extended Tang dynasty in 907, a Ngo Quyen headed ar The Vietnamese people of today are among as far south as Hue. A decade later. In 208 B.C., insurrection which In 939 succeeded in expelling th. most homogeneous of A sia. The main stream the rebellious Chinese general Chao T o es­ the Chinese, and established an Independent of the present-day’Vietnamese, originally located tablished an independent kingdom that embraced Annamese kingdom. During the next four and In southern China, migrated Into northern Viet­ the present Chinese provinces of Kuangtung, a half centuries Annam was governed by five nam several centuries before Christ as s result Klangsi and Annam, with its capital at Canton. native dynasties. Each of these dynasties uti­ rf the pressure of the southward-moving Chinese. This kingdom, known as the Nan Yueh or Nam lized Chinese political institutions and norms of j iw» other expansive people of history, these Viet (Southern Viet) endured for nearly a cen­ government. Despite the expulsion of the Chinese, Vietnamese gradually extended their domain tury, until 111 B.C. In that year It was con­ their values and Institutions remained dominant - southward until they dominated all of Vietnam quered and annexed by Wu T l of the great Han The native Vietnamese dynasties were for some and -ngnlforf « number of sm aller ethnic groups.